Shore Patrol: Naples Island seawall restoration bogs down in red tape

The effort to restore the Naples Island seawall remains stalled in a quagmire of red tape.

The plan must first pass muster with the state Coastal Commission. Councilman Gary DeLong, whose 3rd District includes the 107-year-old seawall, said he expects to review the plans soon with commission staff in an effort to get the project under way.

That could be challenging.

Chuck Posner, analyst for the Coastal Commission, said the push for restoration in the canal waters could have negative impacts on marine eelgrass. That would require a mitigation plan, he said this week.

Restoration work in the canal waters isn't consistent with the state Coastal Act, Posner said, adding that the mitigation measures must be spelled out in the coastal development permit application that the commission will review.

"We won't take (the permit application) to the commission until the application is complete," he emphasized.

Eric Lopez, Tidelands capital projects program manager, was unavailable for comment this week.

Meanwhile, more than 250 Naples Island homes are considered vulnerable to flooding if the 107-year-old seawall crumbles during an extreme storm or an earthquake.

"Upon review of our seawall stability analysis results, all of the seawalls are at risk of failure in a `major' near-source earthquake," a 2009 city engineering study warns.

Yet despite the city having $9.5 million on hand to begin the seawall restoration, the project has been stalled over two environmental issues - whether to reinforce the wall on the water side or land side.

Experts say work on the water side could damage important marine life, and 13 palm trees would have to be uprooted in the process.

Work on the land side, however, would require removing 67 palm trees, which some environmentalists say are nesting sites for exotic egrets and herons.

City officials recently notified the Coastal Commission staff that the city wants to do the repairs on the water side, according to Lopez in a June interview.

"Due to cost considerations, less impacts to existing trees, reduced risk of damaging private property and uncertainty related to underground structures installed during past seawall repair efforts, the city's consultant has recommended the water-side repair option," he said at the time.

The water-side repairs would improve the "seismic capacity of the seawall and protect the value of adjacent residential properties," a city report states.

The land-side repairs, on the other hand, are designed to have the "least impact on ... channel depth, channel width and eliminate corrosive materials from the construction," the report says.

However, city arborist Jerry Rowland also warned that 67 palm trees would be removed if the land-side project is selected, to assure that the tree roots won't undermine the restored wall.

The canals were dredged in 1905, and the original walls were constructed of wood in 1923. However, the wall was damaged in the 1933 earthquake.

Pre-cast concrete walls were constructed in 1938-39, and through the years, until the early 1960s, the walls sank underwater 1.5 feet, according to a Public Works report. High tides, the report added, had crested over the seawalls.

The seawall system is divided by planners into three segments: Naples Island, where about 82 properties and Colonnade Park front the water; Landside, which has about 133 waterfront properties; and Treasure Island, which has 39 properties on the water.

In 2010, the council earmarked $9.5 million for the Phase 1 work to fix the most deteriorated part of the wall.

Repairing the entire structure would cost an estimated $60 million, to be completed in six phases.